Ali Abbas Zafar on Jogi’s hair cutting scene; told the crew tp leave

• The actor-director Diljit Dosanjh has discussed a moment in his most recent film Jogi, in which his character chops off his hair.
• In a recent interview, Ali recalled Diljit Dosanjh telling him the sequence is the “soul of the picture” and that it turned out to be “the turning point in the picture.”
• He also instructed his technical team to “lock your cameras and leave” because he wanted to shoot the sequence in a single take.

The actor-director Diljit Dosanjh has discussed a moment in his most recent film Jogi, which is set during the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, in which his character chops off his hair. In a recent interview, Ali Abbas Zafar recalled Diljit Dosanjh telling him the sequence is the “soul of the picture” and that it turned out to be “the turning point in the picture.” He also instructed his technical team to “lock your cameras and leave” because he wanted to shoot the sequence in a single take.

In Jogi, Diljit, who plays a Sikh, chops off his long hair to protect his family and other community members during the riots. The video examines the suffering experienced by the Sikh community in Delhi after former prime minister Indira Gandhi was killed. In October 1984, violence broke out in the nation’s capital and other regions, resulting in the deaths of almost 3,000 Sikhs in India.

Speaking with a news agency, Ali Abbas Zafar said, “So when Diljit read the script, I asked him ‘should we edit out something if it is insensitive?’. And he said nothing. He said whatever you have written is what actually happened. He was the first one to tell me this scene is the soul of the film. This is the biggest sacrifice anyone who belongs in this community will make to save the lives of people from that community. And that is why that scene became the most pivotal point in the film. When I came on set, I placed my cameras and I said we cannot do this scene three or four times, I will have one take. I told my technical crew, I would have one take, do whatever you have to do, and then I said lock your cameras and leave.”

He added, “Diljit was very sombre. We spoke for five minutes and I told him what I wanted him to feel. And I said no one can explain it better than you yourself. I can just give you a little bit of motivation, but I don’t want to direct you in this scene. This is your scene, you have to own it. And everything that Diljit has done in the scene is all his. And I feel super emotional talking about the scene. There were 5-6 people and they couldn’t look at it. They were looking down and they had tears in their eyes because it’s something that you can only feel when you watch the film about what this man is doing.”

Jogi also stars Kumud Mishra, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, Hiten Tejwani, and Amyra Dastur in addition to Diljit. Producing the movie with him is Himanshu Kishan Mehra. The movie had its Netflix debut last week.